Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - BRIGHT (Brilliant Researchers Impact on Growth Health and Trust in research.)

Teaser

BRIGHT (Brilliant Researchers Impact on Growth Health and Trust in research) aims at enhancing the visibility and perception of researchers among the general population in Tuscany. “Researchers make your life better!” is the guiding principle stemming from the passion, the...

Summary

BRIGHT (Brilliant Researchers Impact on Growth Health and Trust in research) aims at enhancing the visibility and perception of researchers among the general population in Tuscany.
“Researchers make your life better!” is the guiding principle stemming from the passion, the enthusiasm and hard intellectual work of researchers’ daily work and how this contributes to the wellbeing of the general population. BRIGHT focuses on creating awareness on the important role played by researchers in addressing the great challenges ahead, such as health and wellbeing, new technologies, sustainable development, physical and biological challenges, cultural heritage.
The project is realized by the University of Siena (Coordinator), the University of Florence, the University of Pisa, the IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, the University for Foreigners of Siena, the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, the Scuola Normale Superiore.

Work performed

Awareness campaign:
o Conception, production and display of promotional material;
o Publication of press release (10);
o Publication of promotional articles in both national and regional newspapers;
o Organisation of a press conference (Florence, headquarters of regional administration and in each of the cities involved);
o Airing of promotional interviews on local radio stations;
o Setting-up, constant updating and maintenance of project website, namely http://www.bright-toscana.it/, designed to also play the function of a blog interface;
o Links with popular and institutional websites;
o 136.696 visitors on project website;
o Constant updating and maintenance of social networks profiles:
o Facebook: 3.446 likes;
o Twitter: 207 followers, 432 tweets, a great number of retweets;
o Instagram: 81 followers, 24 posts;
o APP of BRIGHT: 110 downloads, with a medium rate of 5/5;
o Publication of news in web newspapers (33);
o About 300.000 people made aware of the European Researchers\' Night and its objectives.

Activities during the Night
o Offer of the activities as described in the Annex I Part B to the Gran Agreement, notably:
o Science cafés;
o Research booths;
o Hands-on experiments and demos in public spaces;
o guide visits to museums , botanical garden;
o Mini lectures articulated around various themes;
o Open labs;
o Exhibitions;
o European corners;
o entertainment;
o Active involvement of 1.200 researchers, of whom 20 having benefitted from an EU support in the framework of FP 7 or HORIZON 2020;
o Participation of about 65.000 visitors in the activities offered.

Final results

o Collection, analysis and processing of 435 questionnaires in Florence (42), Lucca (14), Pisa (230) and Siena (149);
o Questionnaire composed of 21 questions divided in 5 sections:
o “Socio-demographic questions”;
o “Knowledge and expectations concerning the event”;
o “Scientific research in Italy and in Europe”;
o “The researcher”;
o “Evaluation of the event”;
o Main conclusions:
o Typology of visitors: balanced gender distribution, with a slight superiority of women, average age around 40 except for Sienna where the average age was 22, due to a special focus on young people, mainly from Tuscany, balanced representation of various educational backgrounds;
o Knowledge about the event: participation in previous editions, although a significant part of attendees didn\'t know about the event;
o Overall positive feedback about the event (activities, interest, contacts with researchers, concrete organisation, locations and venues, scheduling..) for about 95 % of attendees;
o Increased interest of young people towards scientific careers; o Improved public image of researchers and their job, as well as of the potential societal impact of their activities; o Increased interest for this kind of events, and increased awareness of the role and importance of researchers within our society.  

Website & more info

More info: http://www.bright-toscana.it/.